Life Rearranges
by Silver Spider
Summary: Then everything changes. She's there. Life rearranges. Winged angel from above... Helped me find the Will... the Will to love... “Bad Guys”-inspired one-shot. Robyn/Dingo. Tied to my other Bad Guys fics.


_**Author's Note:**_ Another one in the series that started with "Nightcaps". If you haven't read "Bonds of Blood and Water" and "Shadows of Destiny" at least read those first before this one. My Transformers readers already know this, but for the rest of you, I have trouble with action scenes, so I apologize in advance for glossing over them. Enjoy and please review!

**Life Rearranges**

**By: Silver Spider**

The infant, just over an hour old, jerked instinctively in her sleep when her father picked her up from the small hospital crib and, carefully cradling her against his chest, sat down in one of the chairs designated for visitors. She blinked up at him, blue eyes still terribly unfocused, then decided she was in good hands and promptly went back to sleep. It had been a very long and confusing day. She would figure it all out later.

Dingo grinned down at his newborn daughter. He still had not quite recovered from the fact that she was actually here, healthy and happy and absolutely perfect. She even still had that brand new baby smell, though that was likely not to last much further than just after her first meal. The small tuft of light brown hair that stuck out from beneath the pastel pink hospital hat said that she had inherited at least that much from him, but that short instance of wakefulness was enough for him to get a glimpse of her eyes. Definitely her mothers, especially with those long lashes. This one was going to be a heart breaker one day. Dingo frowned at the thought.

"Do me a favor," he told his daughter. "Wait till your... thirty. At least."

He had been a little nervous to hold her at first. He was afraid he might drop the newborn or somehow hurt her with his large callused hands. Robyn, understandably exhausted, had thrust her into his arms and told him he was responsible while she slept. As far as she was concerned, Dingo owed her over ten hours of labor, which meant he would be paying back the rest of his life. He was perfectly happy with that arrangement.

"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner," he said to the newborn. "Jus' glad I didn't miss your arrival."

* * * * * * * * * *

_One week earlier,_

Paris usually enjoyed temperate weather, even in the middle of summer, but first week of July was unbearably hot that year. This particularly annoyed Robyn, who, despite her physical fitness and thank God complications-free pregnancy, opted for staying in the cooler lower levels of the squads head quarters working on various small projects that did not require any particular grace on her part. She had given up on that around the middle of the second trimester.

Pregnant or not, assignments were still assignments. She may be officially on maternity leave as far as field leadership was concerned, but she was still the squad's commander. All information on future missions that came to the others from the mysterious Director traveled through her first. That was why she was not at all surprised when Dingo stormed into the computer lab, the folder with the latest mission briefing rolled up tightly in his hand.

"Did you see this?" he demanded, slapping the papers onto her desk.

"Yes," her reply was calm, her eyes never leaving the screen.

"And you're okay with it?! It's in fuckin' Russia!"

"It's a five day mission, Harry. A week tops," she reached across the long table to a pile of disks, but quickly realized there was no way she would actually be able to get to them without getting up. Stopping Dingo from intervening with a look, Robyn awkwardly rose and walked over to pick them up. "You're not going to miss anything but me getting even fatter."

"For such a smart lady, you say real stupid things sometimes," he chastised. "Explain to me why our boss thinks this can't possibly wait till after you have the baby."

"You must be the only man on the planet who actually _wants_ to be in the delivery room," Robyn accused jokingly to lighten the mood. "You don't really want to see the baby until she's clean and swaddled. _I_ don't want to see her till then. Anything less and neither of us may ever want to have sex again."

"I don't see that happenin' ," there was definite mischief in his eyes. "Ever. And don't try to distract me. I'm serious, Robyn. What's so bloody important that it can't wait a week or two?"

_That_ she had not expected, though maybe she should have. "Did you read past the cover page?" she took his silence as a 'no'. "Read all of it now and then tell me what you think."

She busied herself with more work while he flipped through the pages. Robyn's current project included trying to find something less than a brute force approach to solving the NP-complete problems that ruled some parts of Matrix's programing. One of the main ones was also that he tended to be a power vampire when need required a large amount of nanites to be built in a hurry.

Robyn was smart, but Matrix was the most sophisticated computer she had ever had the chance to hack into. Whoever wrote the code – be it Fox, her mother, or any some assistants – had used a combination of logic, function, and object based languages some of which Robyn was not familiar with. She was not ready to admit defeat, however.

"Compile and try it now," she told the A.I. who had collected itself in a puddle-like structure on the control panels of one of the super computers. The reply came in only a moment.

"Simulation shows a 45% decrease in power usage," came the monotonous reply.

"We have to get it to at least a 60% decrease," she mused and went back to the computer.

"Excuse me, Hunter," if it was possible, Matrix would have sounded displeased, "but I calculate that such a move would decrease my range by no less than 17%. Is this necessary?"

"Last time you extended yourself too far half the base lost power," she reminded the A.I.

"All things need power to replicate," it argued. "I have calculated a 36% increase in your own nutritional intake over the course of the last thirty eight weeks. The results are as expected."

"You didn' really jus' say that, mate," Dingo commented, not looking up from his reading. The deep frown on his brow told Robyn that he found what she was alluding to. She was about to speak but apparently the child within her had other ideas. Robyn made a face.

"Something wrong?" this time Dingo did look up.

"Your daughter is pressing on my bladder," she sighed. "I'll be right back."

When Robyn was out of the lab, the puddle morphed into a vaguely humanoid head that turned to Dingo.

"Is she upset?"

"Kinda. Not really. She knows you don't mean anythin', but you basically just called her fat," the ex-mercenary resisted the urge to role his eyes. Along with a decrees in power consumption, Robyn should have really considered programing some common sense into the A.I.. The collection of robots considered it for a moment.

"She is... bigger."

"She's pregnant. _Very_ pregnant."

"That only accounts, on average, for 3.5 kilograms, though female infants do tend to be bigger than their male counterparts. The rest..." he stopped, seeing the look Dingo was giving him. "This is all far too illogical. I believe I prefer replicating nanites. It is much simpler."

"Yeah, but I bet it's not as fun," he grinned.

"I do not understand," Matrix thought for a moment, then apparently thoroughly confused, reverted back to the puddle form.

Dingo just laughed quietly to himself and shook his head. The world's smartest machine was still no match for the wonderful oddity that was humanity. He glanced back at the folder on the desk. Speaking of humanity or lack there off... He was not really sure what he was supposed to think of this mission, specifically the fact that he would be facing the rest of the Pack for the first time after they parted ways years ago.

"Do you want to talk now?" Robyn returned, drying her hands on a paper towel.

"I'm kinda just hopein' they'd drop off the face of the earth," he admitted, waving a dismissive hand at the folder.

"I thought you wanted another go around," she looked at him intently.

"I did," it felt terribly like a trick question. Dingo rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not likely to forgive 'em for what happened, but I didn't like the blood lust I felt or what it did to you."

Robyn nodded solemnly. Last time, Wolf had nearly killed her – and their daughter by extension – and Dingo had come close to loosing himself to the thirst for vengeance. The possibility of that still scared her. Of course he would have Yama, Matrix, and Fang with him, but that did not mean he could not loose his head. There was really no telling how his reunion with the Pack would go except for the obvious fact that it would not be pleasant.

"I know the timing is bad. I'm not thrilled about it either. If it helps," she took his hand and placed it on the curve of her abdomen, "think of it as protecting both of us."

Whether in agreement or just in reaction to his touch, the baby kicked at the skin beneath his palm. Dingo could not help but smile. He would do whatever was required if it meant his girls would be safer.

"Anythin' I can do for you before I head off?" he asked Robyn.

She considered the offer. "Yes, as a matter of fact there is. Call your friend Fox and ask her to send me all the specs and anything else she has leftover from Matrix's creation."

"Call my friend Fox?" he was amused. "Are we in high school that you can't call her directly? Why is it that I can talk to Jason no problem, but you have issues makin' nice with the few friends I have?"

"Fox isn't your sister," she said pointedly, "and you offered to do something for me."

"Right. I'll give her a call. Maybe she heard something about our mutual friends, too."

* * * * * * * * * *

Fox had explained that the trouble with the Pack was linked back to the mess they caused at the Cyberbiotics facility a while back. Apparently Xanatos had lost control over the Coyote robot was once again leading the group. She also informed him that her sources said that the robot and the new member had already moved south to Japan. The ones he, Yama, Matrix and Fang had to worry about were the remaining three. Not that Jackal, Hyena, and Wolf did not present a challenge on their own, but he preferred the odds of three against four to the alternative.

It did not go as Dingo had expected, though his expectations were fuzzy at best. His former teammates knew nothing of his activities since they parted ways. More importantly they did not know of his connection to the masked woman who had the audacity to get in their way eight months prior. He was taken slightly aback when he realized that the twins looked actually happy to see him. Before the fight ensued, Jackal – perhaps the more stable of the trio – had asked him if he missed the thrill, and the question actually made him pause. Not that Redemption Squad work did not come with its own excitement, but it was different probably because the bottom line was that at the end of the day it was a job.

Had he remained with the Pack, would he have eventually relinquished his humanity as well? Or would he, unable to keep up with the other ever evolving members, have found himself six feet under? Were those so-called thrills worth either outcome? Within the squad he had real friendships and love. He had come so far and grown so much. And he was about to have a daughter, not a tomb.

Life trumps death any day.

"Nah," he'd shrugged. "Nothin' t' miss."

That answer had cost him three broken ribs and countless cuts and bruises, but in the end Matrix, Yama, and Fang made for much better backup than the others. Having left the trio out cold for the authoritative to find – from what he'd heard of Russian prisons, Dingo certainly did not envy them – they moved their attention to other matters. By all accounts the should have followed Coyote. Yama, in particular, was not happy to learn of the robot's destination, but Dingo was anxious to get back to Paris.

It had already been about a week, but he had not received any emergency calls from Robyn. _Doesn't mean much_, he thought, drumming his fingers on the arm chair of the helicopter seat. _Probably thinks there's no need to interrupt the mission for something as small as havin' a baby._ As it turned out, he was half-right.

Robyn met them just as the helicopter was lowered to the space it was usually housed in the squad's headquarters. Her palm was on her lower back as she walked towards them. He was relieved to see that he had not missed the big arrival, but then found it odd that she was there at all. It was a little past twelve, and despite her bravo, she had taken to going to sleep early. Then it clicked.

"How long?" he demanded, not really needing to elaborate.

"About..." she pretended to think about it, "two hours."

Dingo looked at her incredulously. Only Robyn. She had to be the only woman on the face of the planet who, at first sign of labor, did not run to the hospital but instead waited while the father of her child returned from a continent away. Damn stubborn fool, but a part of him was thrilled she has waited.

* * * * * * * * * *

_Present,_

The baby began to fuss which jarred Dingo from his musing. Her face scrunched up, and she looked like she was working her way up to a good loud wail. Her father attempted to rock her back to sleep, but she was having none of it. Dingo was at a loss.

"I don't know what you want," he said a little helplessly.

On the bed near the window, Robyn stirred.

"Dinner time already?" she forced her eyes open and pushed herself to a sitting position, suppressing a yawn. "You can give her to me."

"Breakfast, technically. 's about seven. G'mornin'."

He crossed the room and, sitting down on the edge of the bed, placed the child in her outstretched arms. Robyn adjusted the infant so she could nurse. The girl instantly settled down, and the hospital room fell back into silence. Seeing the somewhat glazed look on her lover's face, Robyn laughed quietly.

"Are you alright?"

"Me? I wasn't the one who'd just spent all night bringin' life into the world," he reminded her. "Nice job, by the way."

"Thanks, but you still look like you just got run over by a fully loaded eighteen wheeler," she smiled. "Are you in complete shock?"

"Complete," he admitted and nodded at the baby. "We were jus' gettin' acquainted. Thought I was ready, and then I held her, and any expectations I had went straight out the window."

"It's just more real for you now," even after everything that had happened that day, Robyn was nothing if not practical. "I had her with me for nine months. You just felt my stomach move every once in a while."

"I know better than t' argue. Anyway, we've gotten calls from Jason, Fox, and some old Scottish man who claims to be your... uncle?" he gave her a questioning look, but Robyn just smiled and nodded for him to continue. "Everyone sends their congrads, and the question of the day is what her name's gonna be. Anything specific you had in mind?"

Robyn shook her head. "I hadn't thought about it much, just that I don't want it to be after anyone in my family. She deserves something that will be hers alone."

Dingo regarded his daughter for a long moment. "Erika," he finally said, and when Robyn raised a brown, he simply shrugged. "First name that popped into my head. I don't think we know anyone named Erika."

"Okay," her mother nodded. "Erika Monmouth. I like it."

"Not Erika Canmore Monmouth or something like that?" he drew his brows. "You don't want her to have your name?"

"I don't want her to have _that_ name. It's soaked in too much blood. I wouldn't wish it on our daughter."

"Oh," he seemed to consider that, then cleared his throat, suddenly uncomfortable for some reason. "In that case, how 'bout you too?"

She stared at him which did nothing to put Dingo at ease.

"Look, I know we did things a little out of order, and the whole gettin'-on-one-knee... not really my thing. Don't think 's yours either. And I don't know how much... better or cleaner or whatever you think it is, but if you want it, I could give you my name."

Robyn continued to stare.

"I botched it, didn't I?"

To his everlasting surprise she actually laughing and leaned forward as much as the infant at her breast would allow to kiss him gently on the lips.

"Does that answer your question? I'd offer to elaborate, but I'm not quite recovered from the last time I did that."

_**Author's End Note:**_ So Erika is named after my beta reader Eri who's been an invaluable help in all these fics. I love you, girl! :-* Originally I was going to have her born in October on Hunter's Moon or around there but I should have planned for that in advance before I mentioned that it was mid-autumn back in "Bonds of Blood and Water" ^^;;


End file.
